Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-10-20
AMONG THE T'LINKlTs.

The Rights Of Women Among the Abo-
sriglnal Tribes Of Alaska.
Every time a man wants to UNDER
lake a business transaction he takes
his wife along with him to ratify or
veto the bargain, and should she be
absent at the time she may afterward
put in an appearance and upset the
whole affair. Funniest of all, the same
equivalent transactions of the women
are not subject to the sam. supervis-
ing power of the men. who have moth
ing to say regarding the bargains Of
their wives and daughters. except to
foot the bill, if any compensation is
promised by the squaws that the men
are expected to fill, as work, utensils
they can make, or even money. where
they can get it from white men and
understand its value. I have known
several instances where the men have
closed certain bargains, only to find
them opened again when the
absent wife put in an appearance. AS
white men are not very liable to undo
a bargain which they think is to their
advantage, they seldom acquiesce in
the demand of the women in canceling
the contract, and some of the worst
personal misunderstanding between
the two races have occurred on this
account. !, of course, do not know how
the Tlinkit man Jared after he got
home from such bargain; but l think
we can all imagine pretty we'll.
Nothing was more exasperating to me.
at times. upon my expeditions into
Alaska-in 1888 and 1886-when
came across some man from whom /
wanted to buy some trifling article or
to employ for short time than to
have to start out for the Indian viii
lage, probably a mile or two distant
to consult his wife about it, or to
bring her to me to talk the matter
over.
Then the succession to the chieftain-
ship of the tribe is most singular
one, based also on ''woman's rights.
or something akin to it. Neither the
eldest son of the King and Queen nor
the chief and his wife nor, in fact
any of the sons and daughters sue
coed their father to the head of the
tribe when he dies. but some one of
the nearest male relatives of the
Queen is made chief when her hus-
band dies. 1t is easy to see that this
curious and roundabout method of
handing down the scepter may trans
fer the crown to anybody in the tribe.
and that there can be no such thing
as a true royal succession or heredi-
tary decent of the chiefs power.
When the parents, or either of
them, have died all of the effects that
they possessed descend by Inheritance
on the mothers side, none of the
descendants of the father receiving
any thing out of the estate. One
would think that it would lead to
some curious muddles. but somehow
they manage to keep it straight.
The same as among all savages, the
men have often two or three wives.
and in rare cases even more; but the
women, not to be outdone in the mat
rimonial line, have in a few in
stances-two or three of which I know
of personally-two husbands. They
are nearly always rich women, who
have had great deal left them by in
heritance, or who had made large
amount themselves-for, as / have
said, the women do nearly all the
business One Tlinkit woman, a
Sitka woman, who went by the name
of Mrs. Tom among the white people,
and who had already one husband.
bought another. a slave, for about a
thousand dollars in goods and chattels,
and when saw the two together aft
erward I think he was the best-looking
one of the pair. When a man and
woman marry they try and adopt
boy and girl If the man dies the
boy becomes the woman's husband,
and if the woman dies the girl becomes
the wife of the man.
Schvatka, in ~ Y Independent.